Three big creativity killers
Confessions on bad habits
November proved itself to be the month where my new writing habit was truly tested - and “failed”, in the traditional sense of the word. So let’s all learn from this failure, shall we?
We can’t really talk about creative habits unless we also look at the bad habits, the shadow sides. Here are the top 3 bad habits that negatively impacted my writing goals last month - and that will negatively impact your creativity too unless you pay attention:
1. Perfectionism
It’s not that I did not write at all for this blog last month - it’s that those writings ended up staying in my drafts folder. Eight drafts, to be precise, including a draft on bad habits, that will now become this post. Eight!!! Eight times that I opened my laptop and started writing a post about creativity for this blog. Eight times that perfectionism led me to self-doubt my ideas and my writing, procrastinate on taking further action (and started a new post instead of finishing the one I was writing 🙄 ). Eight times that I heard a chorus of voices in my head singing “It’s not original enough”, “It’s not relevant”, “You live in Finland, shouldn’t you be writing in Finnish instead?”, “You’re not even a native English speaker”, “It’s already been written about for so many times, who cares what you have to say about this topic..?”. Eight times that I believed that voice, stood up and decided I had something loftier to do with my time than writing a blog post about creativity (because the perfectionist in my head would have not accepted a “blog post from a person who is starting a new writing habit”, it would have demanded “award winning author type of text”.)
Eight..!!! Thinking about it now, I wanna cry. If I would have followed through on every single one of those posts, I would have been posting here more than once weekly, and by doing so, I would have exceeded my own writing publication goal - imagine that!
I think we all can agree that perfectionism is one of the worst creativity killers, terminating creative ideas and products before they even get to see the light of day. How do we not fall prey to this notorious slayer?
If I would have the entire answer to that, I wouldn’t sit here writing to you about how perfectionism killed my writing intentions LOL. But here’s what I do know:
You’ve got to anchor your creative drive in a desire to make meaning. It’s gotta matter to you, big time, that you get your creative work done. You have to decide it matters - so that when perfectionism shows up ready to kill what you intend to start, or what you started, you look it in the eyes and tell it to find something better to do, or go find some other weak creative soul ready to give up on their creative intentions (sorry, it sounds horrible, I know). Because you’re not giving up on yours, you’ve got work to do, you’re gonna finish this thing.
You have to be a warrior. Actually, I come to think about how often war is being used as an analogy when talking about the creative process. Steven Pressfield does it in his “War of Art”. Paulo Coelho does it in his “Manual of the Warrior of Light” - which in my opinion is very much about the creative process too. And it makes sense, because yes, there can be a war raging on in our minds when we set out to create.
2. Being unprepared (despite having made a plan)
Thinking back of November, I now realise that I had made a plan for my writing habit, but what I didn’t have was a contingency plan. You know, being prepared for chaos. Like what I would do when things would not go according to plan (which is, to be really honest, more the rule than the exception). I used to have a coach who would talk about the importance of making a contingency plan, and I do have certain contingency plans in place for certain areas of my creative life. But seeing the following words in my Instagram feed a couple of weeks ago, reminded me that I need to go and revise my contingency plans:
“My entire life changed when I realised that preparation always beats planning.
Planning is based on the expectation of order. Preparation is based on the expectation of chaos.
Plan for order and you’ll be destroyed by chaos.
Prepare for chaos and you’ll thrive in any condition.”
Sahil Bloom, on Instagram
We always think that things will turn out better than they do. (Sorry if this sounds like painting the Devil on the wall, it’s just that I have a lot of experience about the reality of life 😉). We tend to think we can get more things done in a day than we actually can. And we tend to fail to notice all the possible things that can create chaos along the way.
My writing plans (also) failed because of things like poor meal planning, and having an empty fridge and running out to the grocery store when I was hungry and thereby wasting time that could have been used differently (make a meal or eat a prepped meal and then get to my creative work!). Yes. Ordinary life stuff and a hungry stomach can sabotage your creative plans. So now I’m back to the way I used to roll things before I got sidetracked: preparing for chaos by keeping my pantry stocked and planning my groceries and meals better so that I can get my creative work done (and eat healthy, nutritious meals) 😊 .
Being prepared for chaos and having a contingency plan, would have also saved me from the following bad habit, which is…
3. Overconsumption
…of media, more specifically. I’ll be really, really honest with you here, although my Ego would rather not have me confess. My God, was I over-consuming and over-indulging in reading the news and doomscrolling on social media last month..!!! And soooo much creative time got wasted with that! 😨 The thought of not being able to get that time back is a devastating one!
It feels horrible to admit to yourself that you’re addicted. Because yes, that’s what those apps - and the entire smartphone - are designed to do with your brain. I guess we keep living in denial, thinking we’re “stronger than that”. “Addicted to my phone?! Oh, not me…” (it’s always so much easier to point fingers at other people, isn’t it?). And the next minute, you’re wondering why the hell you grabbed your phone again. I had a conversation about this with someone at a party last week, and he told me he doesn’t understand why he reads the news (on his phone) multiple times a day. “It’s not like I would glance through the printed version of the newspaper over and over again in a day…” he said. I couldn’t have agreed more. Yet, there we were, two smartphone-addicts having a conversation about our dopamine-fixing, creativity-killing behaviour…
And hereby, we have arrived at my biggest bad habit, creativity killer number one when it comes to my own creative life. (Yes, this one is worse than perfectionism for me). It’s the same bad habit that so many of the artists and creatives that I coach are struggling with. And I know I can’t tell them to do something about it unless I’ve done something about it myself. So…
As I’m writing this, I’ve installed the Freedom app and will set limits to certain apps for certain hours of the day in order not to waste any more of that precious creative time. With less time for social media apps, I’m also looking into becoming even more intentional with how I spend my time there. (I’ll report back on how it’s going after a while).
Realising the amount of creative energy that goes wasted into the abyss of social media was also the reason I decided to do my 12 Days of Sing From The Source - a series of self-care practices for your Singing Self (including your voice, body, mind, creativity & energy) that I’m offering for free - in a different place, away from social media, in a more distraction-free zone where we can experience more depth. (If you’re a singer / vocal artist, or just would love to spend more time with your voice as your creative expression, I hope you join us in the 12 Days!).
So here we go, let’s defeat Perfectionism, be prepared for chaos, and follow the rule: “Create before you consume”. Are you in too?
Much love,
Katja
PS. If you need help with breaking bad creative habits, or want support in finishing your creative work, the Artist Mastermind is opening up for enrolment at the end of this month - stay tuned for more!